Paper route hero: Wald helps ill woman

By DONNA SCHILL CLEVELAND, Ledger staff writer | Dec 11, 2012

Photo by: By DONNA SCHILL CLEVELAND/Ledger photoDeb Smith thanks 15-year-old Fairfield Ledger carrier Brayden Wald Monday afternoon for helping her neighbor in need, Karen Sisk. A week prior while on his paper route, Wald found Sisk struggling to breathe, and went to Smith for help. “I’m glad I was able to do it,” said Wald. Sisk is being treated for pneumonia at Jefferson County Health Center.

It was 4 p.m. Dec. 3 when Deb Smith of of West Broadway Avenue heard a knock at her front door.

When she went to see who it was, she found her paper carrier, a slight teenager standing in the cold. While it was the same hour on any given weekday Brayden Wald usually brought her The Fairfield Ledger, Smith said she could tell something was wrong.

“He looked very concerned,” she said. “He doesn’t usually knock with it being winter, he just leaves the paper.”

Wald had just come from the home of Smith’s neighbor Karen Sisk, her friend of 30 years.

When she went next door, she found Sisk struggling to walk to the kitchen, her breathing labored. Smith helped her to the couch and put her fingers to her wrist.

“Her pulse was racing,” said Smith. “I could tell she was not well.”

When Sisk, 64, resisted going to the hospital, Smith called her doctor.

“I told them her symptoms,” she said. “They said to get her to the emergency room right away.”

Smith took her to the Jefferson County Health Center where she learned aside from ongoing issues as a diabetic, Sisk was unknowingly suffering from pneumonia. Smith said she’d noticed Sisk had not been feeling well in recent weeks, but was surprised to learn her condition could have been life threatening if left untreated.

“The outcome could have been very scary, but I don’t like to think about that,” said Smith. “Our little paper boy was our guardian angel.”